


Keep you like an oath, may nothing but death do us part

by Miyukitty



Series: SASOikawa 2016 [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Final Haikyuu Quest, Childhood, Children, Claiming, Creepy Fluff, Demons, Dreamsharing, First Meetings, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Possessive Behavior, Prophetic Dreams, Royalty, SASO 2016, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 10:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7218244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miyukitty/pseuds/Miyukitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the prompt: <i>remember that time when tooru agreed to marry hajime as kids?</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep you like an oath, may nothing but death do us part

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the SASO2016 BR1 prompt: _remember that time when tooru agreed to marry hajime as kids?_
> 
> Can be considered prequel to [this FHQ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7174799), especially since I started writing them as one fic and ended up splitting them into two because length?? This is either really creepy or really tooth-rotting fluff, I can't decide :U

 

It was summer when he met the little prince.

 

Hajime was playing in the woods outside of the village after finishing his chores. It wasn't much cooler in the shade of the trees, but it beat letting the sun scorch his neck and shoulders red all afternoon. He liked to catch beetles in the forest when it was too hot to go fishing, like today. 

 

He hummed a folk song under his breath as he clambered up a jagged tree stump, then jumped off it with a satisfied grin. He couldn't find any beetles today, which was disappointing, but he supposed something must have scared them off. (Too bad it didn't scare off the mosquitoes.)

  
  
All of a sudden he heard a wailing cry and a crash, as a small body burst through the foliage and careened into him.

 

He stiffened as unfamiliar arms clung to him, nearly toppling him over. He knew everyone in the village his age, and this was a boy he'd never even seen before. He wasn't _scared_ , of course, but there was something about the noisy stranger that was vaguely... _wrong_.

 

Red eyes overflowed with tears as the boy sobbed inconsolably into Hajime's shirt. Small fists clutched at the fabric like a lifeline, tugging at him beseechingly.

 

Hajime just stared down at tiny nubs of horns barely visible through the boy's wild crop of hair.

 

Well then. He'd never met a demon before, let alone one of the Seijou royal family. He had expected something… grander.

  
  
"I'm lost, I don't wanna be alone anymore! I hate it out here! There's bugs everywhere and they're scary and gross and no one will help me go home! Take me home!"

  
  
He frowned at the petulant kid currently saturating his shirt with snot and tears. Iwaizumi Hajime was no fool. He wouldn't fall for it.

  
  
"Everybody knows demons play tricks. That's why no one wants to help you. What makes you think I will?"

  
  
The princeling raised his pale face. He was streaked with dirt, tears tracking down rivulets through the grime. He pouted, lower lip quivering dangerously close to a sob.

  
  
"It's not a trick, I promise! It just! It has to be you! I know you, I mean – I've seen you, in my dreams. I chose you."

 

"I don’t know you," Hajime growled.

 

The hair on the nape of his neck prickled uncomfortably under the demon's unblinking stare.

 

"Go away," he added, in case the message wasn't clear.

  
  
But the boy shook his head mutely, refusing to accept the rejection. Even when Hajime tried to shove him aside or wrestle his grip off the shirt, the demon clung to him, wailing, and would not be shaken. He only consented to let go if he could hold Hajime's hand instead.

  
  
"Just for a minute, and then you have to go away," Hajime tried to stipulate as he pried grubby fingers off his shirt. He wasn't going to fall for demon tricks.

 

 

* * *

 

  
  
They walked hand in hand through the forest for hours. Hajime hoped his parents weren't worried that he was missing.

 

(He half-hoped they would find him and save him from this clingy pest, even if it cost him a lecture about safety.)

  
  
"You're really annoying," he informed the demon for the third time that afternoon. "No wonder no one from the castle came looking for you."

  
  
"You're my knight in shining armor," the prince sniffled, then broke into a wobbly hopeful smile. "I've seen it!"

  
  
Hajime spluttered.

  
  
"Don't say dumb stuff like that!"

  
  
"Like what?" the demon asked, tilting his head.

  
  
"Like… like saying you know what's gonna happen. It's a trick. Stop it."

  
  
The demon scrunched his face into a pout, and Hajime resisted the urge to laugh. He just wasn't easy to impress, even if he was just a simple villager in the eyes of a royal.

 

The prince swung their clasped hands back and forth, and then gasped when an idea occurred to him.

  
  
"Iwa-chan!"

  
  
"I told you not to call me that."

  
  
"Iwa-chan, I can just show you what I've seen so far," the demon grinned.

  
  
"No," Hajime protested, but the prince gripped his hand tighter.

 

Where their palms touched, he could feel an unfamiliar heat gathering, a tingle beneath his skin. He chanced an uneasy glance at the boy's face. The prince's eyes were closed, eyebrows drawn in intense concentration, sheen of sweat beading up on his pallid skin.

 

His breath caught in his throat, and for the first time that day, brave Hajime felt a tinge of fear creeping cold in his veins. 

  
  
This was _magic._

 

He had never seen a demon's magic before. He thought maybe he should run away, if he wasn't so curious to see what the prince wanted to show him.

  
  
Then images flashed before his eyes. They were scattered fragments of color, memories that hadn't happened yet, jumbled all out of order.

 

They began to take form in his mind, something like a daydream (except he could still feel sweaty fingers clutching his hand, anchoring him to the present as his stomach dropped and his mind lurched and _splintered_ ).

 

 

* * *

 

 

  
  
_Hajime saw the demon's coronation in all its glory, the bloody rise of_

 

_G r a n d   K i n g   O i k a w a_

 

_He saw himself, older and stronger, clad in armor and_

 

_accepting a mighty broadsword on bent knee_

 

_like a fairytale  
_

 

_He saw a conquest of fire and steel_

 

_with himself astride a warhorse_

 

_leading the charge as the King's champion_

 

_He saw the boy prince crying in his tower because he was alone, so alone, and Oikawa would_

 

_m  a  k  e     t  h  e  m     l  o  v  e     h  i  m_

 

_the way he **deserved** to be loved  
_

 

  
  
_He caught glimpses of splintered shards he was perhaps too young to comprehend the weight of:_

 

_a betrayal, a promise, a broken heart_

 

_felt his young soul swollen with love, searing with rage, wracked with grief_

 

_all at once._

 

 

* * *

 

  
  
His cheeks were wet, but Hajime didn't realize he was crying until Tooru hugged him.

  
  
"Don't cry, Iwa-chan," the prince snuffled pitifully, on the brink of tears again himself.

 

Hajime bit his lip, disoriented and a little queasy. He mussed the prince's hair roughly, not quite sure what to do with his hands.

  
  
"I'm not crying! I… I do know you," he mumbled finally, sounding surprised by his own statement.

 

(The prince's skin felt cold and clammy now, and his shoulders were trembling from the effort he spent. _Don't push yourself too hard,_ Hajime immediately thought, but couldn't form the words on his tongue.)

 

"I mean. I'm gonna know you. You're… you're really important," Hajime amended. 

 

How long had he been standing here? The shadows were lengthening in the forest. He didn't want to be caught out after dark. He would get scolded, and have to go to bed without supper. He needed to hurry.

  
  
"Uh-huh!" Tooru brightened visibly, nuzzling closer against Hajime's chest. "You're my knight!"

  
  
"You're… my king," he continued in that dazed tone. He looked out at the trees, a frown tugging at his lips. They all looked the same. 

  
  
"You're mine, Iwa-chan… You love me," the demon whispered, laying his head against Hajime's heartbeat. Small hands clutched at his back, greedy for his warmth.

  
  
The boy swallowed around the lump in his throat, and blinked slowly. It dawned on him then that despite all his caution, he might have made a mistake.

 

Demons play tricks to get what they want (wasn't that what he'd been warned over and over by the village elders)?

  
  
But Tooru promised it wasn't a trick. It was real.

  
  
"Yeah," he exhaled, finally wrapping his arms around the prince, _his_ prince, and hugging him back. It felt _right_.

 

He didn't know how much time he'd spent in the forest. He wasn't sure he even knew the direction the castle was in anymore. His head was filled to burst with memories of a life he'd not yet lived, of a love he had not yet earned.

 

And perhaps Hajime was a fool after all, because he'd seen the way their fairytale ended, and he still wanted this.

 

"Yeah, I do. I won't let you be alone again. I'm even gonna marry you someday. That way we'll always be together."

  
  
Tooru squeaked happily in agreement. Blunt claws scraped his back as the demon got excited, though Hajime barely flinched.

  
  
"Okay! We'll be together 'til death do us part," Tooru exclaimed, the old words laced with magic on his clever tongue. 

 

"Longer than that," Hajime countered, a stubborn set to his jaw. It was cruel, too cruel, to let it end that way. "In this life _and_ the next."

 

It was more than a promise; a binding oath, even if Hajime could barely comprehend what he'd just sworn himself to. The prince blushed then, and squeezed him tighter than ever to hide his flustered expression.

 

"Take me home," Tooru pleaded again, his first order. (And how did the castle seem so close now, ramparts visible above the treeline when Hajime could have sworn it was far in the distance?) 

 

With their hands clasped together, Hajime took him home.

 

* * *

 

 

 


End file.
